Lorne Michaels

Born Lorne David Lipowitz on Nov. 17, 1944 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Michaels earned an English degree from the University of Toronto and took a sojourn to the United Kingdom in the mid-1960s to pursue a career in, of all things, automotive sales. It became clear relatively early on that his true talents would be wasted in that arena. Michaels' friends often described him as having a "catalytic personality;" he made things change by his very presence. He had a flair for bringing together a disparate and interesting group of people and making himself their center. Throughout his life, Michaels displayed a natural affinity for being in charge of things. Even as a teen, he would adopt the me...